The Aeon
by Kitsubasa
Summary: Minato is gone. Souji is left without a Persona. The end is drawing near. The fate of the world rests in the hands of Ryoji... But is he ready to fight his destiny? -Sequel to 'The Death'-
1. The Path Was Closed

My feet pound down hard on the pavement as I try to distance myself from the Nyx Cult HQ. Is it the cult I'm afraid of, though, or Minato? Nyx, why did I have to come back here? Why did I have to ruin his life again? I thought, after the Fall was averted, this would all be over, I thought that I'd go back to my life and he'd be in the Seal, and we'd never have to worry about hurting each other again: we'd just be two human souls, isolated in space without anyone to hurt, anyone to break. I thought it was over for me; and I was happy that it was over. Why am I back? Why am I back?

Turning back for the shortest of moments, I see the huge warehouse the cult inhabits growing steadily smaller as I run away from it, as fast as my legs will take me and as far as my lungs'll let me. I'm human now. I'm _a living, breathing, human_. I have hair and teeth and nails and my own voice—everything I missed after I became Nyx's Avatar. I'm Ryoji Mochizuki again. Ryoji. _Ryoji_. My name—it's applicable once more. I've got that scarf, the braces… It's like nothing ever changed for me. My hair's a little longer, I guess. But that's all. It's like… for everything Minato's given up, I've gained something back.

I'm grateful. I'm grateful, and oh-so guilty. I know that Minato blames me for this, and I blame me too. But there's a flicker of glee somewhere in me at the fact that I get to be free again. I've got this chance to live the life I never had… But am I going to take it? Freedom, or saving the world. As much as I hate to have to consider that choice, I do. I know there's no question which I'll end up picking, but simply having the option, _considering _the option, feels like more than I deserve.

Funny. I'm given four years on my own in space to think everything over, decide who I am and what I'll do if and when I get back to Earth, but I don't use any of it on self-discovery. It takes a world, eyes, feet, and desperation to get me to consider anything. I guess maybe, before I start thinking, I should think about what's happened, where I'm going, and why I'm going.

I'm Ryoji Mochizuki. I'm on the run from the headquarters of a cult out to turn me into a monster and force me to end the world. I'm the former god of Death. I've got to find a Persona user, and fast. But… the question is, who? And where? Minato told me 'find Souji Seta', well—gee, Minato, no directions? No instructions? Seta's a pretty common surname—there's no way in hell I'm traipsing through the phone directory to find him. Really, all I can do is run and hope for a sign. Maybe I should try after some of S.E.E.S? Naw, they wouldn't be in Iwatodai any more.

… I've gotta find Souji. I don't know who he is (except for the fact he's a Persona user, because really, what else would Minato be hanging out with?), but I have to find him. Only… where to look? The warehouse area that the cult calls home overlooks the Iwatodai port. Cutting through the center is the bridge between Tatsumi Port Island and the rest of Iwatodai City. Getting across the harbor is probably what I should concentrate on for now—Tatsumi Port Island doesn't have much in the way of residential zones, and what little apartments there are are primarily owned by the Kirijo Group.

The lights of the bridge burn bright in the darkness, but eclipsing their glow is something far more sinister. I finally catch the smell of burning gas and tires in my nose. The sky around the far side is thick with smoke and flames. _Something _is going on. And I have a sneaking suspicion that the one behind that 'something' is Minato. Or… maybe me? Do the Shadows still count as me when it's Minato they're part of now? Sometimes, the issue of what's his and what's mine gets a little confusing.

Deciding the flames are as good a place as any to start looking, I make my way towards one of the borders of the warehouse area. High, barbed fences—but if I'm even half as agile as I used to be, they won't matter. My fingers find places in the gaps of the mesh, and before I know it, I'm climbing, climbing… My thighs meet painfully with the wire as I throw myself over, ripping a huge gash in both my pants and my skin, but my escape is otherwise successful. Landing on my feet, I hear a crack from one of my ankles, but ignore the noise and forge painfully on, moving even faster through the streets as adrenaline takes over and my priorities rearrange so that _investigate the fire _is top of my list.

Several streets and a few pints of blood later, I'm heading along the pedestrian walkway on one side of the road. I'm significantly slower now, as the wounds on my legs are starting to get to me (who knew I could bleed?), but I'm still working at a reasonably quick pace. As I approach, the smell and the heat become overpowering, along with the new sign of a disaster—noise. Wailing sirens, cars pulling in and out, a fire truck spraying water all over the flaming wreck of cars. An ambulance pulls away as I make it to the back of the many spectators, all staring on at the carnage. Some are crying. Some are simply curious. But one stands out: a tall teenage boy, with silver hair and a bandage on his forehead, not looking like he's feeling anything at all.

It's the look of a Wild Card. No doubt about it. Every now and then, a tinge of emotion appears on his face—the slightest twitch of a downturned mouth, the movement towards shocked eyebrows. His eyes don't tell a thing, regardless of what happens—but the other muscles in his face do. Not many people look like that; completely blank. Maybe, this guy's worth the chance. I take a deep breath, and walk over to him, trying to stay some semblance of calm.

"Excuse me, I—" His eyes spring into life, and shoot me a terrifying glare.

"Leave me alone," A few moments pass. I'm just about to do as he says, intimidated by his anger, when I notice something tucked into one of his pockets: headphones. Stainless steel headphones, with a brand name and a serial number carved into the back. These headphones have been out of print for a good few years. These headphones are Minato's.

"Minato Arisato," I say, knowing full well it's the best way to make him realize I'm someone who knows about his Persona powers. Souji—or at least, I expect it's Souji—gawks at me for the smallest of seconds, then grabs me by my scarf and wrenches me towards him.

"Where did you take him?" I struggle feebly against Souji's grip, but I can't break free.

"I'm not part of the cult," He looks unbelieving. Great… I'm going to have to prove who I am to him, aren't I? But I can't pull any magic tricks now… Crap, what'll I do? Suddenly, I realize that there's one thing I can do to prove that I'm not out to get him and Minato. Running my hands through my hair, I try and shake out the gel it's been styled back with, and then sweep it down over one of my eyes. Sticking my hands in my pockets, I look at Souji with the most bored look I can muster.

"… Who are you?" He asks me, as it sinks in that, if it weren't for my hair and eye color and the mole under my eye, I'd be the perfect copy of Minato.

"My name is Ryoji Mochizuki," Does he know about me? I hope he does. I always feel sick to my stomach when I have to try and explain what I did in 2009.

"… Minato's Shadow," He whispers. I guess he's right, in a way.

"Something like that," His grip on my scarf loosens, and I'm allowed to break free. _Ow, that hurt… _

"He said you were locked away behind the Seal,"

"And he was right… Until now," Souji can't be too familiar with Minato if he thinks that he tells the whole truth to people. Our conversation dies down for a while, and the world is overcome by the shouts and screams of the people nearby, the roar of the fire—Death. It's almost fitting that, to meet with Souji, I've had to be near some horror caused by a part of me. Don't say it wasn't—now I'm here, I can smell Shadows on the air. It's hard to describe their scent—you know what it is, or you don't. It's like nothing else in the human world… The closest thing you can compare it to is a mix of cheap air freshener and sea water. Fragrant, but hollow… And tinted with a harsher smell…

"… Why are you back? And where is Minato?" This guy asks a lot of questions. I don't blame him.

"Minato has been captured by the cult of Nyx. And I'm back… because I have to end the world," Souji freezes, and then looks at me with murder in his eyes. I know what he's thinking: 'if I kill you, then the crisis'll be averted'. Pity he's wrong. "Killing me won't help a thing. It'll… probably make matters worse." What I told Minato earlier wasn't entirely wrong; killing him'll turn me back into the Appriser. But… killing me will have the opposite effect. I'll return to him, and he'll have to suffer my fate. I'd never wish that on him.

"How can things be worse than they already are?" Souji's face sports a grim smirk now. "My parents are in hospital, dad might be dead… Minato's gone. I've got no Persona now and I'm defenseless. All I've got is an empty home and a couple of friends." Touching his hand to his forehead, he laughs bitterly.

"Not to mention, I got cut a bit before," The situation is worse for him than I thought it'd be. What kind of horror has Minato… have I brought to him?

"Souji," I mumble, and he looks at me with a hint of shock in his eyes, but it fades away.

"Minato told you my name, didn't he?" Casting his gaze towards a group of paramedics, piling unconscious—maybe dead—people into one of the ambulances. No wonder they ignored Souji's forehead. No matter what was wrong with it, he was still conscious… still in a better state than these sorry people. "I guess… you really are his Shadow." Suddenly more confident, Souji whips a cellphone out of one of his pockets, and starts punching the buttons on it down at lightning speeds.

"… You haven't explained to me what's going on. Neither has Minato, really. But I know that, whatever you're both planning, we'll need back up; and lots of it," Raising the phone to his ear, he gives a genuine smile. "Junpei, can you come meet me at the Port Island Station?'


	2. Shadow

The room is stuffed to overflowing with Persona users. A menagerie of familiar faces, and not-so-familiar ones. In the back sits Junpei, his legs crossed and his eyes surveying the room. Nearer to the table are Yukari, Fuuka and Mitsuru, each of them eying me up suspiciously. Ken and Akihiko are to my left, and together the three of us take up most of the sofa we're sitting on. Koromaru lies on the ground at my feet. Aegis isn't here. Huddled together away from the S.E.E.S members are Souji, and his friends from Inaba. It's silent. Totally silent.

"Hey, everyone," I try to break the ice with a casual greeting, but my attempt is shut down by an angry glance from Yukari. Yuka-tan, Yuka-tan… She doesn't like the fact I'm back. "I don't know a lot of you, so I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Ryoji Mochizuki… Otherwise known as Death, the Appriser… Thanatos… Nyx Avatar. I'm the son of Nyx, and the Shadow of Minato Arisato." Everything seems to sail over the heads of the Inaba crowd until I say the word 'Shadow'. Then it's all shock and curiosity from them.

"… As it stands, we're close to having the world end on us," Getting up from the sofa, I wander over to the counter nearby. The old S.E.E.S dormitory… I should've known we'd be meeting here from the get go. It's a nostalgia thing on Mitsuru's part, I guess. Once she heard that Souji and I were issuing a call-to-arms, she suggested we use this place as our headquarters. The Shadow-tracking equipment upstairs does give some semblance of a reason for us to be here… but really, why come back just for that? "Minato's been captured by the cult of Nyx, who wish to summon my mistress… And if they kill him, then their job is as good as done." Turning back to face everyone, I approach the Inaba group.

"I don't know if you guys know much about Nyx, but—"

"Don't worry," A tall, blonde guy says. "Minato told most of us about her." Souji nods in agreement.

"Yeah," A short-haired girl says. "And then they told the rest of us what happened on the way here." Trust Minato to do the hard work for me. Quite frankly, I'm glad he did. It saves me remembering everything.

"That's good," I smile, and look over to S.E.E.S. "Anyway, I know everyone here is a capable Persona user. And really… that's all I can ask for, right now. We need to get Minato back from the Nyx cult, and prevent them from summoning my mistress."

"Ryoji… I'm with you all the way," Despite her prior anger, Yukari is the first to agree to help me. I'm not all that surprised. She's always been determined to stop Nyx, and right her father's wrongs.

"As am I," Mitsuru, I guess, feels a similar guilt, and is the second to agree.

"The Investigation Team is at your service!" A short blue-eyed boy pipes up from in amidst the Inaba group, securing them all in to help. Approaching them to say thank you, I freeze as I realize what I smell from inside their group. That unmistakable, otherworldly scent…

"… One of you is a Shadow." The blue-eyed boy laughs.

"It took you that long to figure it out?" No-one but me seems surprised, so I shrug off my confusion.

"Guys?" I look away from the Investigation Team again, and stare at Ken and Akihiko, wanting a response from them.

"I'll help," Ken mumbles. Akihiko, however, doesn't seem as comfortable with the idea of Shadow hunting—or at least, that's what I'm taking his mouthed 'no' as meaning.

"Why not…?" I shouldn't ask. I shouldn't be expecting him to help with something this dangerous.

"It's not that I don't want to," He smiles, a tinge of red coming to his cheeks. He's embarrassed. "It's that… I don't think I can summon my Persona any more."

"What?" Mitsuru says, shock oozing into her normally calm voice.

"I don't know… I just don't feel it there like I used to," Akihiko looks around the room. "I'm not sure if it's just that I haven't used him in years, but I don't feel Caesar in there anymore." There's an eerie silence as we all think about Akihiko's words, and wonder why his Persona has disappeared.

"I'll still play support," Putting up his fists, he throws a punch into thin air. "Just don't expect me to fare too well against Persona users."

"… I'm coming along with you guys, too," Trying to keep us all talking, Fuuka gives her agreement to my plan. Fuuka, Ken, Yukari, Mitsuru… I glance down at Koromaru.

"Woof!" He pants excitedly. I know that, if he could talk—or if Aegis was here to translate for him—he'd be saying yes. Alright. That makes six of us, plus the Investigation Team, which leaves…

"Junpei, what about you?" I glance over to Junpei, who grabs the bill of his cap and pulls it down slightly, hiding his eyes.

"… I'm not going to help," _Why? _Why would Junpei—Junpei of all people—say no? The rest of us are putting our lives on the line, and trying to save the world, and he says he won't come with us—calm down, Ryoji. I have to calm down. I can't expect anyone to want to save the world. I can't expect them to take this way out. I can't expect them to understand how indebted I feel to Minato. Ultimately, this is all just me wanting to save _him _for once… Not the other way around. Last time, he went against all odds to save the world—including me—from Nyx. I want to prove to him I can do the same. But I won't admit that to the others. I can't admit that to the others. "I have to stay away from all this Persona stuff. I can't let Chidori get involved with it again. I can't let it ruin her life again."

… Hell. She's alive? I see now why Junpei won't help… If my lover was in the same situation I'd be pretty damn eager to keep away from any trouble. Especially if I'd lost her once. Damn, Junpei, why didn't you tell me about Chidori sooner? I wouldn't have even asked you to come to this meeting. I'd've left you alone, forever. I mean, we're supposed to be best friends, right? … Right?

… Wrong. Truth be told, the years have probably separated him from me. We were close once. But in his world, that 'once' was three years ago, and I'm not going to argue against the fact that three years can do a lot to someone. He's had three years worth of movies to watch, days to live, and people to meet. He's not the Junpei I played video-games and hatched weird plots with back then. But… I guess I'm not the Ryoji he befriended, either. I'm not some dorky teenager—I'm a god, and I have my own business to fulfill, my own un-life to live carrying out the wishes of my omniscient mother.

"… You're free to go, Junpei," I whisper, not entirely sure I want to let him leave. Maybe I could still fix what I've broken? Maybe we could still be friends…? No, I don't think so. I think, after taking his two best friends from him in only a few short months, I—as a god—have no right to do so. The human Ryoji would've been allowed to be friends with Junpei. But like it or not, my mind's that of a god's now, even if my body isn't. And Junpei doesn't deserve to have to pretend that this god is the human he ate corn chips with once. I killed his Ryoji, just like I killed Minato. All I can really ever call myself, at least where Junpei is concerned, is Thanatos.

"… Thanks." Getting up from his seat, Junpei leaves without another word. Souji watches him carefully as he exits, disappointment glinting in his slate-grey eyes. Forcing my mind to snap off the subject of Junpei, I reclaim my place on the sofa.

"Well, if this is all of us… I'd like to explain what's going on in greater depth," The Investigation Team draws nearer to the table, and takes the free seats available. It's funny, watching to see where they sit… The places they fill. Aegis, Junpei, Minato… There isn't quite enough room, and some of them take to the floor. Souji squishes onto the sofa, beside me. "Minato has been taken captive by a group calling itself the Cult of Nyx. This cult is fronted by four Persona users… And these Persona users know about what happened with Nyx in 2009." Every eye in the room is locked on me, unblinking. It's making me feel… nervous, I guess.

"They've pieced together bits of research left over by both Takaya's original trio, and the Kirijo Group's experiments, and figured out that in order to summon Nyx, they need an Appriser," I steel myself, and try to halt the sudden rush of anxiety thrumming through me. "… They need _me_. Or, rather, they need me as I usually am… Nyx Avatar. That requires thirteen Arcana Shadows, and my body." I feel bad for what I'm about to say, because I know it'll hurt a lot of people to say it, including me.

"… Minato awakened the Arcana Shadows of his own accord. As a Wild Card, he couldn't restrain himself to one Shadow like everyone else. Each side of him has its own negative features, and its own secrets… But the problem is, when they were originally summoned, it was because of me. This time, it was because of him," Pressing one of my hands to my chest, I smile weakly. "So, he had to become them… And when he did, I was drawn back to earth for the same reason I came here in the first place: to become whole. He's calling out for me, wanting me to accept the Arcana back into my body. I'm calling out for him because I want to return to 'normal'." Everyone seems to be taking this pretty well.

"We can't let me go back to normal. To that end, we have to figure out a plan to get Minato back from the cult, and a way to separate him from the Shadows that doesn't involve me becoming Nyx Avatar again,"

"… I don't know about the others, but I'm with you all the way," Souji says flatly, staring at me intently. "I have to rescue Minato. I'm not going to let him hurt any more."

"I'm glad to hear it,"

"… Even though I don't have a Persona any more," Akihiko leans back to punctuate his sentence. "I'm going to do the best I can to help."

"We—" Something catches in my throat, and I stop mid-sentence, feeling overwhelmed by everything. I'm going to help save Minato. _I'm going to be the hero this time_. It's exhilarating, and nerve wracking—and it feels like I'm doing something I'll regret, something I'll falter and fail at trying—but it makes me happier than I've ever been before. This is going to be the one thing in my life I don't regret doing: taking action. "We break into their headquarters the day after tomorrow. Be ready."

I don't know if a million years of preparation could get me ready for this, but I'm going to force a strong face and save Minato. I owe it to him.


	3. The Voice Someone Calls

There's a loud crash as Ken slams his spear through the padlock keeping the huge, mesh gate closed. Chunks of metal fall to the ground, and he grins, slinging the weapon back onto one shoulder.

"Piece of cake," Behind him, Akihiko and I wait anxiously. I wonder if the others have gotten in okay? We decided fourteen teenagers and a dog busting into a warehouse block in the middle of the night together would look strange, and so we sent them off to the other entrances in teams of four: the S.E.E.S girls and Koromaru, the Investigation Team girls, and the Investigation Team guys. I'm sure everyone's fine, but I can't help worrying a little. I don't want to be accountable for anything terrible happening tonight.

"We can go in now, right?" Akihiko queries. Ken turns to us and nods, 'yes'. Sharing a glance with Akihiko, I sprint through the now wide-open gateway. After a short moment, Ken follows after us.

"Which way to the warehouse?" I point across the concrete courtyard, to the largest building of them all. The Nyx HQ… From out here, it looks like just another building. But inside, it's a maze of run-down rooms, science labs, and holding cells. When I was snooping around a few days back, I found some of their reports… They often delve into experimentation on those with Potential, and try to force Personae out of anyone they can. It's like they're building an army to crush anyone daring enough to oppose them… An army to crush people like us. We have to get in now, before they can dig out that army they seek.

"Ryoji, I just got a text from Mitsuru," Akihiko says, as the three of us slip between two buildings to avoid being seen by a guard we notice stalking the entranceway. "The girls are in."

"Great," Picking up a stone off the ground, I toss it at a piece of pavement far away from the warehouse. The guard flinches, glances about, and runs over to where the stone landed, thinking he's onto someone. In the few seconds he's away from the door, Akihiko, Ken and I sprint through it and into the warehouse. Akihiko pulls out his phone and sends a reply to the girls—'we're in too'.

Our footsteps are light, our breathing shallow, as we begin to make our way down the hallways. Ducking through doors here, hiding from guards there, we slowly map out the cult HQ in our minds. It's hard to follow… And that's without beginning our descent to the lower levels. Down there is a labyrinthine extension that make the dungeons in Junpei's video-games look like normal houses. Every twist, every turn, I try to remember where they held Minato, and fight a battle within trying to decide whether he'd still be there or not. _Probably not_, says my mind, _they'd want to experiment on him, torture him—try to find out the secret to summoning Nyx. _Meanwhile, my heart says _he'll still be there, waiting for you to come back. _I argue with myself all the way to the room, and we discover that my mind was telling the truth all along. I don't know how people can put their faith in feelings so easily. I certainly can't.

"You're sure this was the place?" Akihiko stares at the giant bindings on the wall, and part of me wants to scream at him for not noticing the obvious signs Minato was, indeed, held captive here.

"Yes," I turn on my heel to exit, not wanting to linger here too long. "Looks like he's in another room." Ken follows me out wordlessly…

There's a flash of metal under the lights, and the heavy feel of a baseball bat crashing into my forehead. I crumple to the floor without a noise.

It doesn't feel like anything more than a few seconds between my eyes closing and the point where they open again. I'm a little dizzy, but I don't feel too bad otherwise… I wonder, where am I? What happened? I test my arms, my legs, check to see if I can move them… And while the nerves react, and the muscles move, I can't do anything much. I glance about. Restraints… No. Oh, hell no… I can't have been captured. I'm not allowed to have been captured. I'm supposed to break Minato free, lead the Persona users out of here, and save the day. Once everything's taken care of, and we've fixed Minato, I go back to the seal, and rejoin my mother. The world goes back to normal, and I'm at peace with myself, because I've allowed Minato to live this time. That's not how it's going today. _That's not how it's working out._

Minato's over there, chained to a nearby wall. He still looks like Thanatos. He still looks like _me_. On the floor, the Persona users are bound and gagged, and surrounded by cult members. They're dressed like ordinary people, wearing different clothes—suits and Goth Lolita wear and jeans—except every one of them has a blue armband with the word 'Nyx' written on it. The club uniform, or something like that. It's sort of weird… S.E.E.S used to signify itself in a similar way, with their red club armbands as the only feature identifying them as a team. Nyx Cult and S.E.E.S: alike, yet so different. It's a conundrum.

As I shake around in my restraints, the cult's gaze slowly moves off Minato and onto me. At the fore of their group is a tall man with long, dyed red hair and a set of eerily dark eyes. Unlike everyone else, he doesn't have a Nyx armband… But between his pose and the way he's staring at me with a mix of murder and adoration, I can tell he's definitely still a member of their little cult. No… not just a member. I think he's the guy in charge.

"Finally, you wake up," He laughs, in a way that's entirely too friendly for someone that intends to kill me. His voice is thin and harsh, a lot younger than the rest of him. I'm guessing that he's only eighteen, at best. It sort of makes sense… Children tend to awaken to their Persona more easily than anyone else—and if he's the leader, as I'm thinking, then it all sort of fits together. "I should have known we'd eventually catch some Persona-using rats sneaking around here." Folding his arms, he closes one eye and groans.

"I didn't think there would be so many of you, though: fourteen spoilsports and the Appriser. What a delightful group to play host to." Even if all his courteous words are sarcasm, the fact he's saying them in the first place is a little eerie.

"What do you want from me?" I ask him, perfectly calmly, trying to hold back the fear and the anger boiling up inside me.

"I want you… to summon Nyx. Some of us—_most of us_—wanted her to bless us with death when she descended last," Twisting his hair around his finger like a schoolgirl with a crush, the man gazes at me—gazes _through _me—searching for some sort of connection between me and my mother. He saw her that day—I know from the slight smirk on his face that he saw her that day. The moon transformed, with a strange new center, and the black speck on the horizon rising up to meet it. He wants to find some glint of unearthly color in my eyes—black, maybe. I'm too pure for him. Too human for him. He doesn't want a blue-eyed brunette with a skinny body and a mole under his eye. Where's the glowing white skin, the blackened eyes, the wings… where's his goddess? Eventually, he resumes his tirade. "Appriser, deliver her to us. Deliver her to us, and we'll leave your companions alone." Does he think he's going to impress me by talking really florally, or something? I hope not… it's actually kind of unnerving. I stare him down, trying to impress the idea upon him that I'm not going to follow his orders. After a few seconds, he smirks, and begins to laugh.

"I'm not joking, Appriser," One of the cult members behind him pulls a gun from inside the jacket of his suit, and points it at one of my friends. He points it… at Yukari.

"Let them go,"

"Not without your aid,"

"_Let them go_," For a moment I forget I'm human, and lash out at my bindings, thinking that somehow, I'll intimidate them. Far from it—several girls in the back of the mob giggle, their eyes trained on me. They're mocking me. What else would I expect?

"Make me tell you a third time, Appriser, and I'll have her—" He points to Yukari "—shot." Yukari begins shaking her head, looking at me pleadingly. She doesn't want me to give in. She'd rather die than let me summon Nyx.

"Don't kill her!" I yell unintentionally. I don't want to have to choose between S.E.E.S and the world, because I know which I value more. "… If you kill her, then I'll never help you."

"But if you help us, then you're killing her anyway, aren't you?" The man's grin extends ever larger, and his eyes glint under the lighting. I don't know what kind of twisted logic he's operating off, but he's not doing very well at talking me around. "Really, it's just a matter of deciding whether you prefer for them to all die in pain, or gently, by your hands." I don't understand what he's trying to do. I don't understand at all. But… I have a feeling he's trying to goad something out of me—something deeper than an agreement to summon Nyx.

"So, Appriser? What'll it be?" I shoot a glance at Minato, wishing that he could help me somehow, make the choice for me, but he's silent. He doesn't want to jeopardize the safety of the others by talking… I can tell that much. "Your time is running out, Appriser." I don't want to have to make this choice. I don't want to regret anything. Where's a third option when you need one? Where's a deus-ex-machina?

I've made my choice. I made it long ago. I just never wanted to admit it. Now it's time to accept the outcome of my decision.

"Summon your Persona," I tell the man. He motions for the gunman to lower his weapon.

"Very well," Pulling a gun from the holster on his belt, the man raises it to his forehead and fires. There's an empty click. The gun was empty… But it still serves the purpose of summoning his Persona. After a moment, he looks towards me and notices the shock in my eyes. "… Playing Russian Roulette with myself always serves to call her." He motions to the giant creature beside him—a pale woman with long, brown hair and a green dress. Dead flowers are woven into her hair, and, at a second glance, I realize some of her skin is missing. Vines wind up her arms, creating makeshift sleeves. In her, death mingles with life. She's some kind of walking conundrum.

"Persephone," The man whispers. "Attack." Gesturing to Minato, I realize that the man has already figured out my link to the Persona. Did Minato tell him? I don't want to believe it, but there's a nagging feeling in me that he did. The man's Persona leaps at Minato and rips him from the wall. Her fingertips crackle with energy and, in an instant, Minato is covered in flames. He lets out a scream that causes most of the cult members to startle. Apparently, they didn't think he could speak.

"Now, my girl!" The man moves a finger across his throat threateningly. "Let us bring this creature to its knees and bring to life a new god." Persephone grabs Minato's mask and tears it off, revealing his blank black face. He doesn't even try to resist her touch, as she moves her hands to his neck, and, in a swift movement, snaps it with a loud _crack_.

For a moment, it's as though time has slowed down. Persephone disappears, and Minato crumples to the ground, his armor beginning to dissolve into blue butterflies. Souji, on his knees nearby, struggles against his bindings, tears leaping to his eyes. The butterflies consume more and more of Minato, and begin to spiral upwards into a hailstorm of electric blue light. Souji tries to scream through the tape over his mouth. As the final pieces of Thanatos peel away, a small, broken shell is left behind—a blue-haired boy in Gekkoukan school uniform. Suddenly, the world starts again, and around me is chaos.

The butterflies have crumbled into something less specific—a swirling mass of blue energy, which all too quickly begins to converge on me. In front of me, the man opens his arms wide as the energy rushes past him, his eyes opened wide and his mouth opened wider. He's laughing. Like a tidal wave, the power of the thirteen Shadows seeps into me, and my restraints snap as I fight to break out of them. I need space. I need space to move, to breathe—to let out all the strength I've just taken in. The man takes his gun, and once again fires it, only this time, it's in my direction. This time, a bullet comes flying out, only to collide with the shield I've subconsciously put up. He freezes up for a minute, but soon comes loose again, hysterical with laughter.

I walk towards him, my face blank, expressionless, and throw him out of the way with nothing but the flick of my wrist. I'm back to full strength again—a god as I'm meant to be. Even a stray thought can do harm now. I can destroy this cult and cover them in my pain. I can turn this maze into a burial site. I can hammer the meaning of the word 'god' into their pathetic minds with ease. But for some reason, I don't want to do any of that. I just want to tend to Minato and the others. Some of the cult members bow as I pass- I guess they would, since I'm their god now. Some turn away in fear. It doesn't make me happy, or relieved. It makes me upset. Without meaning to, I throw one out of my path with the wave of my arm. Just up ahead is Minato, whose eyes are glazed over. He isn't moving. Is he dead? I don't want him to be dead. I don't want him to have died like this.

Before I go to him, I need to help Souji. I need to undo his bindings and let him say goodbye to his Persona—his lover—if that's still possible. I turn to look past Akihiko and Teddie, and begin walking briskly towards Souji. When I reach him, there are tears streaming down his face and his nose is dripping. Ripping the tape off his mouth, and undoing his bindings as though they're tissue paper, I let him run past me wordlessly. I don't turn to watch his reaction to Minato's state—whether Minato is dead already or not, it's a pitiful one, and I'm to blame for it. I'm to blame… But it was the only way to force myself to become the Appriser again without dragging Minato into things.

"Minato," I eventually hear Souji say. "Minato, goddamnit!" Finally looking around, I see Minato clutched in Souji's arms, his expression unchanged, his eyes still open. He's not moving. He's not blinking. I feel sick.

"Minato, answer me!" Souji crushes Minato so hard in his arms that I could swear I heard something break. I don't know. Maybe it was Souji's heart. Maybe. _Maybe_.

As my powers begin to slowly re-activate, one by one, I feel a familiar sensation climb within me. The sensation of energy, all around me: it's all slightly different—some is like a mild electric shock, some makes my mouth taste of lemons. It's the life forces of everyone around me. Each smells delicious—a Shadow is supposed to want to feed off them, after all. It wouldn't make sense for them not to appeal to us: Fuuka's smells of sherbet, and Yukiko's smells of polished wood. Unique; individual… But there's one missing. Even though I already knew he was gone, the absence feels horribly wrong.

I don't move to help out the other Persona users. I don't try to comfort Souji. I just stand and stare, speechless, emotionless—gawking at the sight of a boy and a body, waiting for my mind to wake up to the shock of what has happened.

I killed Minato Arisato.

I killed Minato Arisato twice.

I killed Minato Arisato twice, and now his boyfriend is crying.

I killed Minato Arisato twice, and now his boyfriend is crying. I'm going to end the world.

I killed—

… I stare. It's all I can do now.


	4. Living With Determination

**2 months until the Fall**

It's December again. In the past week, there's been a lot of strife among the Persona users. Mitsuru announced that, to deal with the threat of the end of the world, the Investigation Team would be transferred to Gekkoukan. Their school had been linked to it to begin with, so it didn't take much effort to get them here. They're living in the old S.E.E.S dorm' now… So are the remaining S.E.E.S members. Most of them have nowhere else to go for their stay in Iwatodai. Neither do I… So, I've taken Minato's old room, and I'm living in the dorm' too.

Mitsuru said she'd re-enrol me as a third-year transfer student at Gekkoukan, so I could bond with Yosuke, Souji, Yukiko and Chie… But I declined. I didn't tell her my reasons, but I think she understood anyway. Over the next two months, I have to prepare myself for the Fall… I have to become Nyx Avatar. I have to become some twisted anthropomorphism of my mother and commit genocide on a grander scale than has ever been seen before. Is there a word for killing a planet? Is there?

Whatever Aegis was trying to prevent by becoming the seal, she's failed. I feel the pull of mother's influence on the world, now. The Dark Hour has returned. The cult's going wild, pulling in new members left and right. It's just like the last Fall… but will it be averted like last time? We're missing our savior—our Messiah. Where's Minato when the world needs him most?

I think, this past couple of days, I've been starting to get a little paranoid. Last time I summoned the Fall, the beginning of December marked the point where I started to lose it a little, I guess. As a general rule, I have two 'forms'—Ryoji, and Thanatos. When I become the Appriser, Ryoji is slowly usurped by my mother's appearance. Everything about me sort of… changes. For a while, I can force the illusion of still being me—manipulate people's minds so they think I'm still blue-eyed, brown-haired, _male_… But eventually, I've changed enough that there's no way of forcing someone to think they're seeing a human being, let alone Ryoji Mochizuki.

Naturally, when Ryoji first starts to disappear, everything sort of collapses in my life: it's a sort of 'uncanny valley' effect: I look in the mirror, and see myself, but my eyes and hair are pitch black. It's sort of depressing, I guess. I can almost convince myself I'm human, but then I notice their color and a light switches on inside my mind, saying I can't go back to what I used to be. For a while after that, it's a downward slope, but around the time I can't pretend to be me any more I accept my fate and roll with the punches. There's very little in this world that's more difficult than looking in the mirror and seeing yourself as a hermaphrodite with wings sprouting from your hips. It defeats you—you've become this creature that isn't human any more. There isn't anything left but to wait while the rest of your transformation swallows you up.

Gazing into the mirror today, I feel the same fear I feel every morning now when I wake up: the fear of change. Glancing in, I over-analyze everything I see. Is my hair a shade darker? Are my eyes turning black yet? Are my hips more pronounced? Mother, what kind of life have you doomed me to? Ultimately, I find no changes, but I feel different nonetheless… It's a sense of impending doom on the air this morning… a sense of impending doom that all but dissipates as I hear a knock on my door. Walking to it slowly, I twist the handle and open the door partway, peering out through the crack.

"It's just me," Teddie. He sounds more serious than usual, though… I let him in without a moment's hesitation. I like Teddie—he's like I used to be: flirtatious, cheerful… a Shadow in denial of itself. He has feelings and a personality, and he tries to be kind and gentle to humans. I wish I could be like him again, but that's a wish that—barring amnesia—will never come true.

"What's up?" Shutting the door behind him, Teddie walks past me and takes a seat on my bed.

"We need to talk," He says, folding his legs, his mouth slightly downturned.

"About Nyx, right?" It doesn't take much time to figure out what he's here to chat about. Why it would be anything else is beyond me.

"Sort of," Then it's about me. "Souji's been crying in school lately." Whoa. I was way off.

"He misses Minato, I guess,"

"Something like that. I think it's just the pressure of everything hitting him at once. He's lost his powers, there're his father's injuries, the prospect of the world ending… Minato's just the tip of the ice-burg," Teddie stares at me surprisingly icily. "You and I are the only ones who don't have to worry about the Fall. We're not human."

"We can't help that, Teddie," I have a feeling that he dislikes that thought, but it's true. "We were born as Shadows, the same way they were born as humans."

"Ryoji… I don't get how you can accept what we are as being some sort of inevitable fate for us," Getting to his feet, he looks away from me. "Long ago, I decided I wanted to interact with the humans, and I managed to will myself into a body that wouldn't scare them away. I managed to force myself to abandon my own species and become something almost entirely different."

"That's different to my situa—"

"You keep saying things like that, and it's not true. You're not special, Ryoji. You're just another Shadow… Why don't you at least try to be something more?"

"Because I can't, it's—"

"Impossible?" Teddie smirks at my shocked expression. How did he know what I was going to say? "It's not impossible." Beginning to walk towards the door, he shakes his head.

"You know the big difference between you and Minato?" Minato is selfless and confident and _human_. Or at least, he used to be. "He never gave up." Gesturing around him, Teddie raises an eyebrow.

"From what I've heard, we wouldn't have any of this without him," Finally exiting my room, Teddie closes the door with one final word of advice to me. "… You know, I would've thought that death is inevitable for everything. Isn't Nyx just another part of that 'everything'?" A click as he pulls the door completely closed behind him, leaving me along.

Teddie… Is right. I shouldn't be letting Nyx get the better of me. I should be trying to defeat her, reclaim the world from her and Erebus… But really, even if I should be doing that, _can _I? Can I face up to my mother, and win in a god-on-goddess battle? Can I? _Can _I?

Any idealist can take that statement and say 'yes I can', and the problem is, I'm trapped in a group of idealists who don't understand the way I've been grounded in the reality of my situation. Kind of weird, thinking about it that way, actually: here I am, a god in a group of mortals, and yet I'm the one refusing to believe in a chance that we could win this. I'm the one holding the rest of them back. I'm…

… You know what? I'm going to ignore the odds stacked against me. It's time that I accepted what everyone's always been trying to tell me—I have to be willing to take the million-to-one chance that the world can be saved. If they can all believe they're going to win, then I can too. Look out mother, we're coming for you.

Minato, I'm sorry that I'm usurping another of your roles, but S.E.E.S needs a new leader, and they've got one—me.


	5. Mystic

**2 months until the Fall**

"What do you mean, you're leaving?!" Ken's fists are clenched tight, and his expression is one of rage.

"Just that," Souji sticks his hands in his pockets, looking entirely unapologetic.

"But you said you'd help us! You said you'd fight Nyx! Souji, why would you back out on us now, it makes no sense! No-one else is leaving—"

"I am," Yukari chimes in, gritting her teeth slightly and pulling the long pink coat she wears tightly about her. "Souji and I are both sick of the danger."

"Yukari, Souji—I—I can't believe you two!" Getting up from his seat abruptly, Ken marches across the room to where Yukari stands, staring passively back at him. "How could you! After we've gone through so much to get this far!"

"Simple—" She breaks eye contact, and, with a flip of her hair, begins to walk towards the door. "—I don't want to risk my life any more. You've already got twice as many people as you did in '09, and so you don't need me to deal with it."

"But—"

"Ken, you're not the one who got a gun turned on you last week," Yukari's resolve is wavering as she twists her hand around the doorknob. "… I can't live this life any more. I have university to think about, and my boyfriend, and…" She trails off, unwilling to think of more reasons, but I can easily add onto the list for her—she's upset that Minato is _really _gone this time. They did date once, after all… She's been clinging to memories from those days, remembering him as the wonder-boy who fixed her problems when she needed him most. The fact he abandoned her for Fuuka, then Mitsuru, then Souji… It doesn't matter. She's got nothing but respect for Minato from their short time together.

"… Goodbye, everyone. I'll see you all around," Yukari walks out without another word. Turning to Souji, I nod slightly in the direction of the doorway.

"I don't think it's wrong that you want to leave. You have every right in the world for hating what I did to your father," Yes, what _I _did. I can't deny that the Hanged Man is part of me, like all those other Shadows… "And I can hardly blame you for wanting to get away from that." He freezes for a moment, but soon nods, and heads for the doorway without a single backwards glance. Ken glares after him, before looking at me as the lock clicks behind Souji's disappearing back.

"How could you let them go?" Even though Ken is fourteen—or was it fifteen?—now, he still has a lot to learn about what you can reasonably expect from a person.

"Ken, if you were told to team up with someone who had, in one way or another, nearly killed your father, what would you do?" Ken looks at me like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, and I realize I've asked completely the wrong question. For a few moments, he's still: unmoving, processing what I said, before making a break upstairs. I glance about the lounge for answers from the other Persona users.

"No-one ever told you about Shinji'?" After a short while, Akihiko breaks the silence.

"The name rings a bell," But I can't say it does anything else…

"Shinjiro Aragaki… He was my best friend in high school. He died in September '09, after being shot by members of the old Nyx Cult," Setting down a bowl of noodles he'd been eating onto the table, Akihiko closes his eyes, reminiscing. "… He died protecting Ken. Several years prior to Shinji's death, his Persona went berserk and he accidentally killed Ken's mother." I feel terrible for what I said now.

"Ken plotted to kill Shinji' and commit suicide afterwards, all the way up until that night. He more than understands what Souji's going through," Why is it I always screw these things up? Walking over to the main cluster of chairs, I collapse into one and sigh.

"Some help I am,"

"Don't sweat it, Ryoji," Akihiko replies. "There's no way you could've known."

Suddenly, I hear the sound of the door opening again. It's Souji—it has to be. I'm not even going to bother looking. He's come back to rejoin the team and be our token Wild Card, fill the void Minato left, bring us all back together. He's going to—

"Junpei, stop trying to send me back to the car," … That's not Souji's voice.

"Chidori, let's just go home already!" Junpei?

"No. You're not talking me out of this," … Did he say Chidori?

"Chidori, please, you're not well, we're gonna go get you checked out and—" I feel a cold pair of hands on my shoulders. I glance up.

"Appriser," Chidori says it calmly, her eyes dead as she peers into mine. "I would call it an 'honor' to meet you, but after everything that's happened, I think that would be wrong." She's a lot prettier than I imagined—long, crimson hair, and dark eyes. She's wearing a gothic Lolita ensemble—white, with black lace in parts of it. Nearby, Junpei panics.

"Chidori, don't get involved with them! I'm not losing you again!" I want to call him out on his almost-offensive way of calling us 'them', but I calm myself down and manage to avoid doing so.

"Junpei, Chidori… What're you doing here?" Mitsuru appears at the staircase, her hair soaked with water. "And… Akihiko, where did Souji and Yukari disappear to?" Keeping perfectly calm, Mitsuru crosses the room, patting her hair dry with a small towel as she does so. Water droplets speckle the fabric of her shirt. She's clearly been in the shower.

"Souji and Yukari are gone," The previously quiet Naoto, who'd been sitting at the table nearby, walks over to join us in the lounge.

"What do you mean, 'gone'?" Mitsuru asks, eying over Chidori at the same time.

"They aren't helping us any more. They're off the team,"

"And we're their replacements," Chidori grabs Junpei's hand, and looks across everyone in the room. "Junpei and I… we're going to help you all."

"… Chidori, when did you find out about us?" Akihiko asks the question that I know several of us want to hear. Fuuka, who's been quietly watching everything from the kitchen, finally comes out to listen properly.

"My memories… For the past week, I've been experiencing the Dark Hour again, and slowly remembering everything about it," Looking at me again, she smiles faintly. "Takaya, Jin… Our mission to awaken Nyx. And… my death," Her gaze travels up to Junpei, and her fingers close tighter around his. "I also remember all the things I did to harm you all. Now that I know you all better, and know about the world he fought to save… I want to make up for all my wrongdoings. Medea and I are here to aid you all." Junpei rubs the back of his neck with his free hand, and laughs nervously.

"… I guess there was no keeping her out of this forever," I can almost hear disappointment in his voice… Junpei… You really do love Chidori, don't you? "… Count me in on the whole 'Nyx killing' thing too. That Fall isn't happening on my watch."

You know… Even if we lost Souji and Yukari, I think today's gone better than most. Junpei and Chidori are back in the game… and they're as useful as any Wild Card could ever be. Besides, I have a feeling that Yukari, at the very least, will come back sometime. She has a habit of doing that—like a cat, she tends to wander in and out, depending on what she feels like doing. It'd be wrong for me to doubt her.

Souji, though… Hm, I don't know. I guess time'll tell, in regards to him. Maybe he'll come back, maybe he won't. I sort of hope he does though. I need to be able to show him I'm living up to the legacy Minato left me as best I can. I can't let him think I'm betraying Minato's final wishes… I'd never do that. Minato means the world to me.

… And I think he means the world to Souji too.


	6. Master of Tartarus

**1 month until the Fall**

_Don't let them see. Don't let them see. Don't let them see._

I feel a wave of nausea as I rematerialize at the bottom of Tartarus.

"Fuuka, why'd you pull us out of there so suddenly?" I ask, trying to wipe the Shadow-slime off my hands. Mayas—never a clean kill.

"I sensed Death coming. I didn't trust you to get out of there in time to avoid it," Banishing her Persona, she walks towards me and the rest of the party, examining our clothes, stained with black Shadow-blood. Today, Junpei learnt just _why _the rest of us avoid using explosive fire-spells on Mayas… You would've thought he would've learnt about the nasty aftereffects back in 2009.

"If Death had appeared, we would've wiped the floor with it," Yosuke spins one of his kunai around on one finger, looking unimpressed by Fuuka's decision to get us out of there.

"The last time someone said that, we had to trek up half a dozen floors to rescue them," From over by the staircase, Akihiko chimes in, ever the voice of wisdom. "C'mon, Yosuke, you get healed up—it's my turn to train." Nodding, Yosuke runs over to Yukiko, who has set up a makeshift bed.

"Lie down," I hear her say, as she prepares to use a curative spell. Deciding Yosuke's cuts are going to be healed up soon, and that I don't need to worry about him any more, I look to Chie.

"Can you take over for Junpei?" She nods, and Junpei groans.

"Oh, come on, Ryoji! I'm not all _that _tired!" I let out a laugh.

"Then why were you complaining all the past twenty floors, huh?" I send him a sly smile, causing him to shy away. "Look, it's Chie's turn to do some Shadow-bashing, anyway." With a sigh, Junpei sloughs off to the corner where Ken stands, Chidori in turn joining the two boys. The three of them soon begin to converse about something—I can't quite hear what, but it's either flowers or the size of someone's nose. Weird.

"Akihiko, Chie, Naoto, are you guys ready?" They all nod in unison, and I lead them towards the teleportation device.

"I'll be your support this time, Ryoji," Rise summons her Persona as the green light of teleportation surrounds my party. I barely hear Fuuka's cry of 'good luck!' as we shoot up to floor 125.

I'm always mystified by the sight of the Persona users charging into battle. From the get-go of arriving on the floor, Shadows surround my friends and I, but of course, none attack me. A perk of my position, I guess? Almost every time I head into the tower, I take Naoto with me, because of the speed and strength of her gun. By the time the Shadows have figured out we're here to kill them, Naoto's already started shooting at them. All the others are comparatively slow to react, and even if their reflexes could compare to her's, the speed of their weapons couldn't.

On this particular occasion, Naoto and Chie speed into battle, each taking a single Shadow on to begin with. Akihiko hangs back at my side, putting his fists up, trying to ready himself.

"Shall we let the girls take this bunch?" He eventually asks me. I nod, and take a left, going deeper into the tower. Akihiko follows. Following… Yeah, he does a lot of that these days. He's not as confident as I remember him being in 2009. Maybe it has something to do with the fact he's not as good at controlling his Persona these days. Contrary to his initial beliefs, Caesar isn't gone—just more disobedient. It hasn't gone berserk yet, but sometimes, it threatens to. Sometimes, it doesn't disappear when Akihiko summons it. Sometimes, it uses completely different attacks to what he wants to use. Akihiko's Persona is one of the reasons why I've been elected the leader of our Nyx Extermination Team, I guess.

When I'm around, everyone's powers are more balanced, and more controlled. Simply being near me is enough to make Caesar obey Akihiko near-totally. Chidori's Persona, Medea, also stays under control when I'm near. She hasn't needed to return to using suppressants, which is relieving. On the few occasions she's gone into Tartarus with me, she's been able to fight like any of the other Persona users… no, not like them. She's better than them. On top of her powerful magic and her limited curative skills, she's also got incredible endurance, matching Akihiko's and Junpei's. Chidori… Is one of the people I prefer to drag along, up there with Naoto. If it weren't for the fact that Junpei demands to come with her whenever I take her into the tower, I'd see to it that she, Naoto and I were the only people to ever fight.

She, Naoto, and I… Maybe Ken could come along too. In the past few years, that kid's really matured. He's level headed in battle, and pretty strong, too. The other day, he managed to finish off a crowd of ludicrously powerful Shadows by himself while I looked after Naoto and Yosuke, who had both been knocked unconscious. Those Shadows kept beating Ken down, but just when it looked like he was out for the count, he'd be up on his feet and battling them again.

I have to admit… I'm kind of jealous of the fights everyone else gets into. I'm too afraid of myself—of Thanatos—to show him to the others… And until my transformation into Nyx Avatar gets a little further along, I can't use any magic without reverting to my other form. Sometimes, that makes things difficult—when everyone's been knocked out, and all I can do is scream at Fuuka to send more back-up to me, or that time it was a full moon and I started to break down and nearly overload on the power I was being fed by my mother, at full strength… I had to vent that power somehow, but I couldn't. I ended up having to abandon my friends and hide in a hard-to-find room, where I could transform into Thanatos and let off some steam without them finding out.

Rounding a corner, Akihiko and I find ourselves confronted by a small crowd of Shadows. The apparent 'leader' of the group, a hulking, muscled Shadow, points towards Akihiko, and motions for the rest of the monsters to attack. Immediately, I step back, and wait for the fight to begin. I don't want to watch. I never want to watch. But I have to.

"Bring it on!" Whipping his evoker out, Akihiko places it to his forehead, and pulls the trigger. Caesar appears a split second later, and unleashes a Ziodyne spell on the weaker Shadows in the crowd. One of them, a weak Empress-aligned Shadow, disappears into a puddle of black goo, which quickly evaporates. By the time the leader is close enough to throw a punch, Akihiko's already delivering him a powerful blow to the gut. The Shadow flinches back, before preparing himself to try another attack. Akihiko's fast, but the Shadow's faster, and with a surprisingly strong punch, it throws Akihiko back in my direction.

Before I can react, Akihiko falls on top of me, knocking us both to the ground. Groaning, I try to get up, but his weight on top of me is making it difficult. After a moment or two spent reeling, he tries to pick himself up, but stumbles a bit. Twisting out from under him, I manage to get myself to my feet, and offer him a hand. Akihiko accepts it, and finally manages to get back up… Only for the two of us to notice the Shadow closing in again, drawing its arm back, moving to hit…

_I've had enough of just watching._

… I step into the way, and manage to prevent the attack from harming Akihiko. The giant fist of the Shadow colliding with my chest winds me, but nothing much else. For once, being inhuman is coming in handy. The Shadow stares at me in confusion for a few moments, wondering why one of its own kind is protecting a human, but quickly adapts to the situation, and throws another punch into me, and another, and another. For how confident I felt when I first started soaking up the blows, it's starting to hurt a lot, really fast. But I can't back down. Not now. I have to give Akihiko a chance to counter-attack: to do the one thing I _really_ can't do.

After what feels like eons, the Shadow is finally sent staggering away by a powerful hit from Caesar. Stumbling, my torso incredibly sore from the Shadow's attack, I nearly fall over again, but catch myself just at the last minute. Charging past me, Akihiko lets out a slew of punches, trying to knock the Shadow down. Meanwhile, the small-fry seem to have figured out that I'm fair prey, and they're advancing towards me. How will I deal? I would use Thanatos, but I don't want Akihiko to see… But without Thanatos, I have no access to magic… Could I withstand their attacks? Even if it's not the best plan, it'll get me by without showing Akihiko my true form. I guess… it's the only chance I have.

One of the smaller Shadows, a beetle-like creature, rams into me with its horns, suddenly waking me from any notion I had of withstanding the group's attacks. Before I can defend myself, a Shadow just like it rams into me from the other side. It's like they're playing tennis, but with me as the ball… it's not pleasant. I'm juggled between the first beetle and the second beetle for a while, before crumpling to the floor in agony. I'm biting my lip and fighting back the urge to scream. I can't distract Akihiko, not when he's so close to defeating that other Shadow. While I'm down, one of the other Shadows—a pair of dancing bodies—spear my shoulder with their rapier, before retreating.

_I'm the distraction. That's my role. I have to stick to it._

I try to get back to my feet, but fall down again as the fourth—and final—small Shadow, a Maya, slides up to me and casts a surprisingly strong fire spell. Collapsing, down for the count with no hope of getting up again, I watch Akihiko through my barely open eyes, as he lands the finishing blow on the leader. Twisting around, in what might have been slow-motion, he gasps as he notices me on the ground, surrounded by Shadows. Summoning Caesar, he dispatches one of the two beetles, and rushes over to try and help me. His attempt at helping is short-lived, however, when the dancer Shadow raises its rapier high in the air and casts a spell… Which spell, I'm not sure.

Why am I siding with Akihiko, anyway? Why am I fighting against my own kind? I should be helping the Shadows… I'm one of them, after all. 'Here', I mouth the word as suddenly power comes loose in me that I haven't felt in a long time. The second beetle-Shadow seems suddenly invigorated. Yes, that's good. We have to defeat the intruder. Show him why you don't trespass on the Shadow's domain. Maybe I'll be a bit more merciful than usual when I kill him… I think I knew him. Didn't I? Akinari or something. Yes. Come, my brethren, let's cut up this cocky urchin. I want to see him cry.

Lunging at the intruder, I summon up a tornado of wind. As my attack hits him, he flinches, closing his eyes as dust springs up on the breeze to meet him. Putting his weight onto his back foot, he leans away from me, and curses under his breath.

"Ryoji, snap out of it!" What is there to snap out of? I'm perfectly fine. This is perfectly normal behavior for… me…

Charmed. I was charmed. Pivoting on one foot, I use my newfound strength to incinerate the dancer Shadow, leaving only the Maya and the beetle-Shadow to kill. With a wave of my hand the Maya freezes up, surrounded by a giant block of ice, before exploding into black goo. Mere moments later, the beetle suffers a similar fate. I look around anxiously for more Shadows and, once I've decided we're safe, turn back to Akihiko.

"Are you okay?" I ask. He nods, albeit very slowly.

"I think, if anyone here isn't doing too good, it's you, Ryoji," Closing his eyes and tilting his head away, he points at me, prompting me to look down.

_Don't let them see. Don't let them see. Don't let them see._

Every day, I've been slowly transforming into Nyx Avatar—though, the Persona users certainly haven't been aware of it. As it stands, I am and always have been good with messing with people's minds. They think they've been seeing Ryoji. They've been wrong. These days… My eyes are completely black, ditto for my hair. My skin is flawlessly white, like porcelain. Somewhere along the line, I inherited one of the stranger traits of my mother: a mixed gender. I'm not a teenage boy now: I'm a hermaphrodite god who isn't entirely comfortable with that fact. I have my mother's feminine figure, her thick eyelashes… I was never really all that masculine, even as a human, but this is really pushing it.

"… I'm doing _just fine_," I inform Akihiko, though I have a feeling my lying isn't very convincing. Shuffling uncomfortably where I stand, I fold my arms. Finally, the truth of what's really been happening to me the past few weeks comes out. Actually, to be honest, it feels like I'm finally being honest to myself about what's happening as well. As long as the Persona users could pretend I was Ryoji, I could too… Now I wonder how well that'll go.

"No, Ryoji, you're not," Staring me down, Akihiko frowns slightly. "Let's go find Chie and Naoto and call it a night. You look like you could use a rest."

"I'm fine, Akihiko," I'm not letting him stop us from climbing more of the tower when I'm perfectly fine. Hell, I'm better than 'perfectly fine', apparently, I can cast spells again now. We could probably plow through twenty more levels of this place with me and my magic.

"C'mon, just stop trying to pretend you didn't get beaten up before," I know how that would've looked to Akihiko, but really, I'm fine now…

"Akihiko, we have to keep going, we've only got a month more and we're only halfway up, we—"

"_You _need to take a rest. And that's that," Turning around, Akihiko starts to march back the way we came. After a moment, I hear him talking with Rise. "Yeah, we're coming back now. You saw what happened… Is he okay? Yeah, he's fine, I think. Can you get Fuuka ready to teleport us back? We'll regroup in a minute." Watching him walk off around a corner, I groan and slump back down against a nearby wall. If he can see what I look like now, then so can everyone else… I'll have to toy around with their minds again, rebuild those blockades that prevent them from seeing how I really look. May as well try to start now, I guess…

I sit quietly, and think, trying to concentrate hard enough on what they'll be seeing. _They'll see Ryoji Mochizuki, no different from usual. _I repeat the mantra enough times that it seems like I can't think of anything else, and, once I'm satisfied that it's a powerful enough mental suggestion to affect anyone near enough to see me, I get back up onto my feet.

Hold on a minute. Anyone near enough to see me… Wait.

"Rise?" I ask. Within moments, I hear her voice in my head.

"What's up, Ryoji?" I frown slightly as I think of what I want to ask.

"Did you… watch all of that fight before?" There's an awkward pause in the conversation, before she finally answers:

"Yes,"

"Rise… Before, I was thinking… You and Fuuka, have you always been able to see what I look like through your Personae?" Another pause.

"Yes,"

"… Thank you for not telling anyone about it,"

"Hey, if you were upset enough to be hiding it from everyone, then I figured we shouldn't spill your secret. Fuuka thought the same, apparently. Even she and I haven't talked about it," I'm so lucky that those two are our support. I wouldn't be able to trust anyone else not to tell.

"… I'm going to regroup with the others now. Is Fuuka ready to teleport us down?" Rise makes a small noise of approval.

"Yep, all she needs is for you to find them, and you'll all be good as gold to get back to the bottom."

"See you there, then." There's a noise, like a radio clicking off, and Rise's voice is gone from my mind. Alright… I guess I should track the others down. Sprinting down a corridor, I glance about, looking for signs of life. In the distance, a beetle-Shadow creeps about. I decide not to go that way… If Naoto and Chie go in a direction, you can be certain everything in their path will die. Down another passage, there's empty space… I decide to give that a try. If I can get close enough to them, I should be able to sense where they are. I begin to run again… And as I do, I feel a faint pulse, and smell a faint smell—they're near. The smell of a second-hand clothes store, the smell of blood, the smell of smoke: the scents of Akihiko, Chie and Naoto. What a Shadow is supposed to use to find them, and kill them. Maneuvering around corners and checking every nook and cranny, the smell grows stronger and stronger, as do the pulses of energy. Eventually, I can even hear them:

"Hey, Naoto, don't worry, Ryoji'll catch up soon," Chie sounds happy and spritely, like usual.

"I know, but… I still feel a little worried about the fact he's alone somewhere in the tower," Naoto sounds concerned… _like usual_.

"Seriously, he'll be fine! I mean, he's got all those weird powers and stuff... I wouldn't be surprised if he has some weird sixth sense that tells him where we are!" Finally, I find the room they're resting in.

"Weird sixth sense pretty much covers it," I laugh, walking towards them, pasting a false smile on my face. They don't say a word in reply. I look over them to try and figure out why—is it really that weird that I'm back? Akihiko's face is void of expression, but the girls both look shocked. "What's wrong?" Chie raises her arm and points at me.

"Ryoji, what happened to you?" No. Don't tell me—my attempt to hide the truth from them, my spells… they failed?

"It's nothing," I reply, trying to downplay my transformation.

"Nothing my ass!" Chie responds. Naoto nods in agreement.

"Ryoji… you're becoming Nyx, aren't you?" I mumble a 'yes' in reply. Naoto doesn't look at all surprised—but then again, she probably figured me out long ago. "Frankly, I would have been more shocked if you weren't," Walking across the room to where I am, she peers into my eyes, before turning back around to face the others.

"You shouldn't feel embarrassed or worried by anything that's happening to you, Ryoji. You don't need to keep lying about your condition. We've all long since gotten used to the fact that we're allying ourselves with death, and really, the more we know about you, the better," Bowing her head a little and smiling, she gives off a small, forced, laugh. "I mean, we don't want to head into the Fall not knowing what to do or how to win."

"… Yeah," Chie agrees. "I don't want you to keep us in the dark about everything, Ryoji."

"I think it's time we head down," Akihiko grumbles, before linking himself up to Rise and Fuuka. We follow suit. "Rise, Fuuka—send us down."

"Okay!" Rise says, and within a moment, Akihiko has vanished in to a blossom of light. Chie follows suit, and then Naoto and I disappear after the others. There's a few seconds of darkness, and a sick feeling of falling in my stomach, like I've been pushed off the top of the tower… And then, once again, we're at the bottom. The light flares up around me again, and suddenly, I can see everyone—all of S.E.E.S, all of the Investigation Team. Their eyes flicker about the returning adventurers, to check for injuries… But as people look at me, they gasp, and their gaze remains fixed. Is it really that noticeable…? Is the fact I've changed so obvious…?

Yes, it is. _It's painfully obvious. _Junpei gasps, as does Yosuke. Mitsuru's eyes widen for a moment before she can contain her shock. The only ones left unsurprised, other than the people who already knew, are Teddie and Chidori. Teddie… Well, I guess it's because he knows about how strange my body is. His probably isn't normal either. No matter how human a Shadow looks, they're still probably hiding some defect. Chidori, she's probably just been expecting this sort of thing ever since she first heard of Nyx and Minato and I's relationship to it.

"Dude," Kanji whispers. As everyone's horror fades, they begin chattering amongst themselves, and while some people are talking about me, just as many aren't. Making my way across the room to Teddie, I lean against a wall near him.

"I envy you, Teddie,"

"Don't," He replies almost instantly, looking at me with strange anger in his eyes. "I've been through almost the same thing as you. Don't assume that I've always looked like this." He motions to himself: his white, frilly shirt and short blonde hair.

"Before that… what did you…?"

"Before this, I was an empty bear-shaped mascot suit," He glances down for a split second, almost sadly. "Before _that_… I don't know." I begin to say something, but Teddie cuts me off with a short wave of his hand. He exhales a bit, before looking at me seriously—it's intimidating, watching Teddie look so upset. Why me? Why do I deserve that look?

"Look, I hate to be rude, Ryoji… But… You being near me does weird things to my emotions. It makes me angry. It makes me want to hurt people," Turning away, he sighs. "Ryoji… Could you keep your distance from me? Please? You're doing something weird to the part of me that's still a Shadow. I don't like to feel that part waking up. I'm sorry." I can't counter that—and I probably wouldn't want to, if I could. I stare at Teddie for a short while, before walking off to find someone else to talk with.

As of tonight, my status as 'Ryoji' is going to spiral downwards until finally, I'm Nyx again. But… I have to hold out hope. Hope that… somehow, this world won't fall to me. That everyone'll be saved again. I have to hope that Aegis is strong enough to hold that seal in place. I have to hope that… if I fail my part, or she fails hers, we can save each other. Aegis… Maybe there's something in me that'll stay human for you, no matter what happens.

For all that's ever happened to make us enemies, I really did always feel more comfortable with her than any of the other Persona users—except maybe Minato, I guess. Perhaps it's because she's always been there to prevent me from doing something I would've hated myself for doing? I don't know. All I do know is that I want her to come through for me again. Aegis… I want you to fight against me again, and stop me. Please. Do it for me.

If you can hear me, Aegis… protect me from myself.


	7. Blues in Velvet Room

**3 weeks until the Fall**

"I'm going for a walk," Zipping up the black jacket I've stolen from Yukiko, I look around the lounge at all the Persona users gathered there.

"When will you be back? We were going to go to Tartarus tonight," Mitsuru closes the fashion magazine she was reading and looks up at me.

"At about ten. Don't worry, I still intend for us to head out," We've still got a hundred floors to climb, after all.

"Good. I'd hate for us to reach the end of January and not have finished our journey up the tower," Crossing her legs and flexing her wrist a bit, Mitsuru eventually returns to reading. Sighing, I move towards the door.

"Hey, wait up, Ryoji," I hear Yosuke call out from the dining table. "I'll come too." Pulling on a jacket he has slung over the back of his chair, Yosuke dashes over to me.

"I kind of wanted a breath of fresh air anyway," Without warning, Kanji appears behind him.

"Hey, me too. Let's all go out together," So much for heading out on my own… Oh well, I guess it'll be good hanging out with these two. They might even be able to help me with what I have planned… From the kitchen, I hear Chidori call out something—though I can't quite hear what.

"Wait!" Oh, there we go. Chidori appears at the reception after a few moments. "Can I come with you three?" She stares blankly at me.

"Sure," I say, after a moment of thought. Smiling slightly, she begins to pull off the apron she's wearing, revealing a perfectly normal button-up shirt beneath it. I didn't know she owned clothes that weren't goth-lolita. It's actually kind of surprising.

"Fuuka, I'm leaving the cooking to you," She calls back over her shoulder, as she navigates around the reception desk to join Kanji, Yosuke and I.

"Okay!" Fuuka shouts back, and it suddenly dawns on me why so many people want to walk with me: I'd be trying to get away from Fuuka's cooking if I were them, too. Well, I guess I'd better get going before half the dorm starts following us…

"I was just planning on going to the shrine," I lie to the people coming with me. I'll tell them the truth once I'm out of Mitsuru's earshot.

"That sounds like a nice walk," Chidori mumbles.

"Let's get going," Yosuke cheers, before striding hurriedly towards the door. I share a glance with Chidori, as we both consider Yosuke's consistently hasty behavior. Doubtless, he's acting on the stories of Fuuka's food. Junpei likes to over-exaggerate about the time she fed him and I a cake she'd tried to make. 'Baked with love', she told us—I guess she'd mistaken 'love' for 'cyanide', or something equally deadly. We were sick for a week. Kanji, Chidori and I follow Yosuke out, waving a short goodbye to the others as we do.

"The shrine is this way, right?" Yosuke points in its general direction and starts briskly walking down the street. The further he is from Fuuka and her cooking, the better, I guess. Pity for him that we're not going to the shrine. Our target is somewhere a little bit closer, and in a slightly different direction.

"Yosuke, slow down," I tell him. "We're not going to the shrine." He freezes.

"What?"

"We're not going to the shrine,"

"Why didn't you tell us that before, Ryoji?" Chidori asks me, raising an eyebrow curiously.

"Because… I couldn't let Mitsuru or any of the others find out what I'm planning," Naoto and Mitsuru would probably lecture me. Akihiko might get annoyed, ditto Ken. The others… Well, they wouldn't mind too much, I think.

"C'mon, tell us what you're really going to do," Kanji groans, sounding a tad worried. He really shouldn't be—it's nothing dangerous after all, I just want to—

"Go and visit Souji," Yosuke's expression falls into a frown. Kanji shakes his head, and sighs a little. Chidori does nothing.

"Dude, that's really not a good idea," Yosuke folds his arms as he speaks. "I mean, firstly, you're like, the one who got Minato killed. I know you didn't have a choice, and stuff, but still. And then there's the fact that, even if he doesn't hate you for that, you look sort of—" He pauses for a minute, looking me over. If he was going to say that I look sort of like Minato, he's wrong—I look nothing like Minato now. I look like a skinny girl with weird eyes and messy hair. I mean, it's like someone stuck Kanji's hair, Yukiko's clothes and the kid from The Ring in a blender and flipped the 'on' switch. This is _not _the body of a Minato-copy now. It's the conglomerate form of a goddess and her human son.

"—sort of like Minato," Yosuke finishes his sentence eventually, even though it's clear that, after a bit of thought, he's realized his point doesn't stand.

"It doesn't matter. I want to see him, and tell him what we're doing. So that… if he looks up at the sky on the promised day, he knows what he's watching," I can't give him Minato back, but I can give him the knowledge of how I'm going to avenge him.

"… Well, I'm coming with you, stupid idea or not," Kanji tells me, and Chidori nods in agreement. Looking from one to the other, I eventually smile, and begin to walk in the direction of Souji's house. Kanji and Chidori follow me, and, after a moment of hesitation, so does Yosuke.

The four of us are silent for what seems like eons.

"Hey, Ryoji," Kanji finally says, as we round yet another corner. Quickening his pace to catch up to me, he looks me in the eyes as he arrives at my side. "Don't you feel awkward, goin' around lookin' like that?" Kanji's always so self-conscious… I don't relate to that easily. Even when I believed I was human, I didn't care what others thought of me—I guess I got it from Minato. If you had told me to wear a dress, I would've. Invited me swimming in Iwatodai's harbor? Well, why not!

"Looking like what? Dressed like a girl, or practically _being _a girl?" If there's one awkward thing about all this, it's that I still sound exactly the same as I usually do. Merging with my mother changes everything about me, save for my voice…

"Both, I guess," He rubs the back of his neck, glancing away.

"I wake up in the morning, and tell myself 'at least you can still pretend to be human, enjoy it while you can'," Not that that'll last long, though. Yesterday, when I woke up in the morning, I found the beginnings of wings on my hips and lower back. My first reaction was to run to Yukiko's room, and ask for her to lend me a skirt so I could hide the growths on my hips. The ones on my lower back had to be bound down with bandages Mitsuru helped me to find. My time as a human… is running out. That's why I have to do this now. I have to see Souji _now_.

"That's sort of… grim," Kanji replies sheepishly.

"If you were in my situation, you'd be hard pressed to find anything better to believe in," Turning into Nyx involves being slowly robbed of everything that makes me Ryoji. If there's someone alive who can imagine that as being a good thing, then I'd like to meet them and find out how they could possibly be so optimistic… or stupid.

"Yeah, I guess so," Kanji looks away from me, up at the sky.

"… You know, I probably won't have feet soon," I remark. It's true—Nyx doesn't have feet, so neither will I, when all is said and done.

"That sounds kind of… weird,"

"It's the least of my problems," After all, which is more alarming—almost having the body of a girl, and a girl with wings, at that, or not having feet?

"Hey, guys, you missed the turn-off," And for once, Yosuke does something useful. Pointing to a street Kanji and I had walked past, he and Chidori disappear down it once they've captured our attention.

"Damn, guess we should've been paying more attention, right Kanji?" I force a smile, and double back, before heading down the street Yosuke had indicated. Kanji follows quietly behind me.

Souji's house is located down one of the more up-market streets of Iwatodai, with small trees lining the sidewalk. Each and every building is new, and painted grey, or white, or black. Modern houses all look the same to me, I've gotta say. Give me the dorm' over this any day. Some of the houses have lights on, some don't. All have garages, which isn't all that common in the other areas of the city—the trains and buses around here are so good, you don't really have to rely on cars that often. Besides, it's not like there's much space to stick parking in.

Coming to a stop where Yosuke and Chihiro are waiting, I gaze up at a large, two-storied house. A small garden sits out the front. In the darkness, I struggle to make out which plants are in it, but with a bit of effort, I spy a rhododendron bush, and a poplar tree in the center of the lawn. A small path leads to the front door, made of concrete with tiny stones sunken in. It's all very picturesque. Opening the wrought-iron gate, and leaving it open behind me for the others to follow me through, I step across the path, and towards the solid, plain front door.

Looking myself over, I make sure I'm dressed okay for this. Being in a neighborhood like this is making me weirdly self-conscious. I lick my hand, and try to smooth back some hair that's threatening to stand up straight. Adjusting the skirt I've borrowed from Yukiko, I check to make sure my wings aren't pressing against it. Is the second set of wings on my back staying bound down? I think they are. I fiddle with the zip on my jacket, before turning around, nodding to Yosuke and the other two, and moving to knock on the door.

_Tap-tap-tap._

My fist sounds hollow against the wood. On the other side, I hear a gasp of excitement, and then loud, hurried footsteps. The thumping of feet on wooden floorboards grows louder and louder, climaxing in… silence. The door swings open, nearly hitting into my face, and I stare down at the diminutive woman in front of me.

"Souji?" She asks, before looking disappointed as she realizes it's not him. Leaning back, looking utterly broken by the revelation that Souji isn't amongst my little group of friends, she glances towards me. "No… He's still not here." Examining the people I've brought with me and noticing Yosuke, her expression brightens slightly.

"Yosuke, it's nice to see you around. I thought you had gone back to Inaba," Her attention shifts to Kanji. "And… Kanji, right? What're you doing back in Iwatodai?"

"We both got transferred to Gekkoukan for the remainder of the year," Yosuke explains. "So, uh, where's Souji, Mrs. Seta?" Looking downtrodden at the mention of Souji, Mrs. Seta opens her door wider and motions for us to come in.

"I suppose I should explain to you four what's happened," We're lead through a clean white corridor, past two professionally-shot family photos, and a table with a small vase on it, then into a modern, Western living room. Mrs. Seta motions to a leather sofa that, even from a distance, smells new. "Hang on a second, I'll go and make you all some tea."

Chidori sits down silently on an antique chair nearby, and turns to look expectantly at us with her tired eyes. Yosuke and Kanji follow suit, each occupying part of the sofa, and, after a moment of hesitation, I join them. The leather squeaks beneath me as I shuffle into a comfortable position, trying to ignore the fact that I've managed to sit on one of my miniature wings. Trying to concentrate on something else, I look around the room. There's a huge flat-screen TV on a stand by the opposite wall. It's ridiculously large—more like a movie screen than a TV. But then again, I guess that's the effect whoever bought it would've been aiming for.

There's a Playstation 3 plugged into it, and a DVD player, with games and movies stacked up on either side. Titles like _Bioshock _and _Metal Gear Solid 4_ are shoved into the games collection, giving me a feeling that the PS3 isn't Souji's—Souji strikes me as someone who'd prefer more strategic games. But who knows? Junpei once told me, after a stint on an arcade game, that you can always tell a guy by what movies he watches, what games he plays, and what kind of woman he's with. Minato watched French arthouse films, played MMORPGs, and dated everyone. I wonder what that means.

After what seems like eons examining the content of the movie collection, I watch Mrs. Seta reappear through the door, carrying a tray loaded with tea. She fakes a smile as she places it on the glass coffee table in front of us, before taking a seat on a chair matching Chidori's.

"Help yourselves, everyone," She folds her hands, and waits, as Kanji and Chidori grab a cup each, tip small amounts of sugar in, and begin to drink. Yosuke doesn't move to drink, and neither do I. I feel sort of guilty, watching the spare two cups spill out steam and a delectable smell, but frankly, I want to find out why Souji isn't here. I'm not too worried about him, but I still think it's important to know what's going on. Realizing Yosuke and I aren't thirsty, Mrs. Seta quickly picks up one of the two spare cups, and sips it swiftly, without adding sugar or milk. Swallowing it back, she places the cup, now marred by a light-pink lipstick stain, back onto the table. "… I'm sorry. It's just so hard to figure out a place to begin." Her voice is soft and gentle, but fragile.

"Life's been strange since the accident… It was a day after you left our house, Yosuke," She smiles at him, but weakly. "Our car ended up overturned on the bridge to Port Island. I don't know how it happened—the police theorize it was a bomb blast." Bomb blast? Not quite. Maybe if you replaced the word 'bomb' with 'Arcana Shadow' and 'blast' with 'destroyed, killed and maimed everything in sight'…

"Takamori ended up in a coma. He still _is _in a coma. Blood loss, and head injuries… Souji moved out for a little while after that, about a week or so. I guess he needed to deal with things on his own," That explains why Souji was able to stay in the dorms with the rest of us while we were gearing up to fight the cult… "When he came back, he was… I don't know. Acting strangely. And then, one evening, about a fortnight back, he walked out the door with a bag on his shoulder, saying he was going back to Inaba to visit Ryotaro. I haven't heard anything from him since. He hasn't called, and Ryotaro's never around to answer the phone—little Nanako is sweet, but she hasn't been much help in contacting Souji." Picking the teacup back up, Mrs. Seta stares into it for a while, before resuming her story.

"He hasn't said when he'll be back, or what he's been doing, or anything. It's scaring me," She takes another sip, and places the cup down again. "But I guess that if he's with my brother, he'll be fine. Ryotaro is a good man."

"Yeah. He lasted a year there, he can last a couple of weeks," Yosuke grins. "Don't worry about him, Mrs. Seta. He probably just needs time to think… or something." She nods at Yosuke's words.

"I suppose you four haven't heard from him either?" Mrs. Seta asks.

"Nope. I tried texting him a few times, but I haven't had a response," Yosuke doesn't sound too disheartened by Souji's silence, though. "But hey, that's just how he is, right?"

"… I guess so. Yeah. Souji's never really been a talkative boy," Getting up from her chair, Mrs. Seta smiles—an honest smile, this time. "Thank you for all coming over. It's always nice to see you, Yosuke. And Kanji, glad to know you're in Inaba for a while." Her attention turns to Chidori and I after a few moments.

"Nice to meet you two girls, too," It takes a bit of effort to not say 'hey, I'm a guy', or something along those lines. "What're your names? I don't think you ever mentioned them."

"I'm Chidori Yoshino," Chidori bows slightly to Mrs. Seta. "Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Seta."

"Please, call me Kaori," The older woman laughs. "Between my husband and my son, it's rare to hear my name these days." Chidori nods.

"Kaori, then." A smile lights her face. Chidori can be surprisingly sweet when confronted by new people. It's kind of strange, really, especially considering that, when I first met him, Junpei told me that Chidori was difficult to get along with, and impatient and rude to strangers. I guess, thanks to her amnesia, she learnt to be civil somewhere along the line.

"And what about you?" Damn, Kaori's looking at me now, expecting me to say something. I have to try and disguise my voice somehow, so I don't look out of place. Clearing my throat a little, I force a grin, and try to raise the pitch of my voice.

"I'm…" Damn it, Ryoji is a guy's name… What can I use? "… I'm Nyx Mochizuki." I think I did an okay impression of a girl.

"Nyx? That's a strange name," Kaori mouths it, trying to figure out if she can pin it to any particular culture, but, if the look on her face is any indication, she's coming up blank. "Where's it from?"

"It's Greek," Great, now I have to come up with an excuse for sharing a name with a god. "My, uh, parents… They studied a lot of Greek mythology, and they thought it would make a cute name."

"Well, they were certainly right on that deduction," Silence. Sensing everything's become somewhat awkward, Kaori begins to lead us back through the house, towards the entranceway. Back past the family portraits, and the vase, and the table—to the front door. The four of us step outside.

"It was good to see you, Mrs. Se—I mean, Kaori," Yosuke quickly corrects himself.

"You're welcome over any time, Yosuke. Same goes for the other three of you," Kanji looks pleased by that offer.

"I'm sure you'll see us a lot once Souji comes back," He tells her.

"Whenever that is," Kaori laughs grimly. "Well, goodbye."

"Yeah, see ya!"

"Bye, Mrs. Seta."

"Once again, it was a pleasure to meet you." Walking up the pathway, Yosuke, Kanji and Chidori don't give a single backwards glance. But for some reason, I linger, watching Kaori. She watches me.

"Hey, hurry up!" Yosuke calls back at me.

"I'll catch up in a minute," I reply.

"Suit yourself. Don't get lost on the way home," He closes the gate behind him, leaving me alone in the garden with Kaori.

"You remind me of someone," She says.

"Minato Arisato, right?" Kaori nods. "He and I are cousins."

"He was a sweet boy," She looks at me with pity in her eyes. "I'm sorry about what happened. Souji told me he died in an accident. I think that's why he left Iwatodai."

"Probably," I start to walk towards the gate.

"You know, Souji mentioned someone called Ryoji Mochizuki to me before he left… Are they a relation of yours? He seemed kind of angry at them,"

"… Yeah. Ryoji's my brother,"

"Do you have any idea what happened?"

"Ryoji was… he was there with Minato and Souji when the accident happened. I guess Souji sort of blames him for not helping Minato," Placing my hand on the gate, I flick open the latch on it. "I came over today to tell Souji that Ryoji is sorry about what happened."

"Don't worry. You'll get to tell him some other time, I'm sure," Kaori gives a short wave. "Bye, Nyx."

"Goodbye, Kaori," Leaving her property, I walk slowly down the street, trying to put everything I've learnt together in my head. Did Souji go to Inaba just to get away from us? Or is he planning something? My slow walk evolves as I move—into a steady stride, a jog, a run, a sprint. By the time I hit the corner out of the street, I'm running as fast as my legs can carry me. Did Souji betray us? Did Yukari betray us? Or are they setting out to actually do something? _Why go to Inaba? _

Before I know it, I'm pulling around onto the street the dorm' is on. I wonder what the time is. I was at Souji's house for longer than I intended to be, so it's probably later than ten pm. I hope the others aren't getting worried about me. I slow my pace as I approach the dorm'. Taking a deep breath, I push open the doors, and walk in.

"Welcome back," Mitsuru says calmly, not looking up from her magazine. "You were later than you said you would be."

"Sorry—I just got kind of caught up by something," Wandering over to the sofa, I slump down into it, and flick the TV on. It'll entertain me until the Dark Hour, hopefully. The late-night news flashes across the screen. There's something about the return of the Nyx Cult, and the disaster on the bridge from a month or so back. They're blaming it on terrorists, like Kaori said. I guess, since everyone would've forgotten seeing the Shadow, that that's the best bet they'd have. It seems like today's a slow news day—most of the rest of the stuff is unimportant, like celebrity scandals, and the release of a new CD. But, as the show drags on, something eventually pops up and catches my eye.

"—the prison breakout occurred in the early hours of the morning, sometime between twelve and one am," The shot flashes from the news room, onto shaky video footage of an unshaven prison guard.

"It was like, he was here one moment, and gone the next. We still haven't found any obvious escape routes," The scene moves to the empty prison cell.

"The escapee was arrested for a series of murders in Yasoinaba during 2011," As soon as the TV says 'Yasoinaba', Yosuke and the other Investigation team are in the lounge, watching.

"Isn't that where you guys…?"

"Shut up, we're trying to listen!" Chie tells me. A photo appears on-screen.

"Tohru Adachi, a former policeman, was arrested by his co-workers after information establishing his link to the crimes surfaced," I've heard that name before… "Any leads regarding his whereabouts are appreciated. And now, for the weather…"

"Shit," Kanji summarizes all their feelings perfectly.

"He must've gotten out during the Dark Hour," Yukiko mumbles, staring down at the carpet. "But… he would've needed outside help to get out of his cell without signs of a forced exit."

"Yeah, but who would want to help Adachi?" Chie ponders. "I mean, I always got the feeling that Dojima was his only friend, and after he was arrested, I kind of doubt they stayed on the best terms."

"What I want to know is _why _Adachi broke out," Naoto says. "He seemed to be… almost _glad _that he had been arrested, when we got that letter from him. Why get out of jail now?"

"You know how Adachi is," Yosuke folds his arms, and groans. "He was probably just acting happy. He just took the chance he had to use the Dark Hour and get free, is all."

"I'm kind of worried for Dojima and Nanako," Rise clasps her hands together, and stares down into her lap. "If Adachi's after revenge, he'll be going for them first."

I have theories about this—theories I don't want to tell the others. All I know is that a criminal with the power of Persona is in Inaba, and Souji's there too. Could it be…? I feel, more strongly than ever, that Souji didn't run away last month. No, far from it.

I think he ran to get reinforcements.


End file.
